Google Keep is live and ready to take your notes

Android users get an official app, but access through Google Drive is also possible.

It looks like Evernote has another competitor in the note-taking game. Though it was leaked only a few days ago, Google has officially lifted the curtain off its Google Keep note-taking service. Keep allows users to quickly jot down ideas, make checklists and voice notes, and archive important photos. Everything is then stored away in Google Drive, and it syncs to all of your Google-linked devices.

Like Evernote, you can also manage all of these notes and mental reminders with your browser or Android device. The Google Keep app is now available in Google Play for devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and up. You can also check out the service through your Google Drive account, though there is no explicit button available in drive accounts to get there at the moment (Google says it will provide one next week). You might get a few errors while trying to access the service through Google Drive (it took us a few tries before we were successful, presumably because of launch-day traffic), but the Android app worked nicely, and it features two new widgets with quick access buttons. There's also a lock screen widget for devices with Android Jelly Bean 4.2 and above.

Google Keep follows in the footsteps of the now-retired Google Notebook, which originally debuted back in 2006. The service was an online notebook for collecting “research and personal notes” like text, images, and links that users could then share with their friends. Notebook was eventually discontinued three years later, and other services have since sprung up with the similar functionality.

I know everybody's going to make jokes about how long until Google gets tired of this, etc. But the issue with this kind of service is that longevity is particularly important. Evernote had the right idea with their name, you want the thing to be around forever and to remember your notes forever. I'm not sure I trust Google with this.

And why did they shut down Notebook rather than convert it into this? Is there a way to import old Notebook stuff into Keep? It seems like a new thing for the sake of a new thing, not because the old thing was broken.

So it can only be used on an Android smartphone? I would hardly consider that an Evernote competitor! I use Evernote on my computer a lot... because there's a keyboard. I've rarely used it on my phone, and almost exclusively to look up something I saved earlier (from a real PC!).

So it can only be used on an Android smartphone? I would hardly consider that an Evernote competitor! I use Evernote on my computer a lot... because there's a keyboard. I've rarely used it on my phone, and almost exclusively to look up something I saved earlier (from a real PC!).

After what they did to Google Reader (retire it after I've been using it daily for 5+ years) I am quite hesitant to start trying out any new Google services.

Think I'll just stick with Microsoft OneNote and the OneNote Android app. Hopefully they'll add a home screen widget like the one I see in the Keep screenshots above (gotta admit, that does look useful).

Sorry Google, I just don't trust you anymore, and this is coming from someone who has been an avid "fanboi" of Google services since when GMail was "invite only." Not supporting Currents, not supporting Keep. Been burned too many times.

I think the killing of Google Reader was a bit of a wakeup call for a lot of people, including myself. I'm not saying I wouldn't use a google product, but at this point whenever I hear about one I think to myself "what are my escape routes? Am I happy if this thing drops off the face of the planet?"

I read on Google Currents, because it looks nice, and if it goes, oh well, I'll read news using a browser. I use Chrome occasionally as a regular browser, but I don't use any of its specific features (chrome sync, "apps"), and so could replace it with anything.

I wouldn't use this. I'm in the process of migrating all of my current notes from Google Notes (or whatever it's called) into Evernote. I have my email address behind my own domain, and am looking at exit strategies for GMail / Calendar / Contacts if the need arises, though damn I'd be sad to see Gmail's interface go.

So it can only be used on an Android smartphone? I would hardly consider that an Evernote competitor! I use Evernote on my computer a lot... because there's a keyboard. I've rarely used it on my phone, and almost exclusively to look up something I saved earlier (from a real PC!).

You can use it in the web

The article doesn't make that clear. It says you can 'access your notes.' I just tried and see that I can in fact write more notes after all. Still, there's no point in switching to this from Evernote unless it gets way more features. Also, I highly prefer a local client. For instance, Evernote's screen clipping feature is very useful. I'm not sure they could get that to work so well in a browser.

I think the killing of Google Reader was a bit of a wakeup call for a lot of people, including myself. I'm not saying I wouldn't use a google product, but at this point whenever I hear about one I think to myself "what are my escape routes? Am I happy if this thing drops off the face of the planet?"

I read on Google Currents, because it looks nice, and if it goes, oh well, I'll read news using a browser. I use Chrome occasionally as a regular browser, but I don't use any of its specific features (chrome sync, "apps"), and so could replace it with anything.

I wouldn't use this. I'm in the process of migrating all of my current notes from Google Notes (or whatever it's called) into Evernote. I have my email address behind my own domain, and am looking at exit strategies for GMail / Calendar / Contacts if the need arises, though damn I'd be sad to see Gmail's interface go.

Great idea. I've also begun brainstorming how I may ween myself off of Google products, to avoid being burnt in the future.

Which Google services are essential?Which can be easily replaced, today?

Things to consider. It will also feel good to finally "take the eggs out of the basket."

Evernote is on every possible platform someone would use. That is more useful then Google's current mission of making sure they don't support anything. It used to be the big selling point for Google that if you use their services it works with everything. Now they are busy killing that all off. It's hard to trust them anymore with their cloud services.

links that you click on with indexable keywords Photos with meaningful metadata and keywords by youThings that you will doThings that you want to doThings that you have done and when you did them

You've just become a cog in Google's search engine, and now Google knows everything about you. Google knows who you talk to, what you talk about, when you talk about it, who you will be influenced by, what you're likely to buy.

Google basically will have very specific, accurate information about you and your habits to build very accurate predictive models about your behavior, and possibly with this kind of information, subliminally influence your behavior.

Disappointed that there is no simple little scribble or drawing available. Sometimes the best thing is a quick little diagram. But then I haven't found any other nice one that does for my Android. I guess draw a diagram on a napkin and take a picture!

As a very very simple not taking app I suppose it's OK, but Evernote need not fear.

I honestly can't understand why Google would attempt to launch a new service like this right now. As can be seen from the recent articles and blog entries on the Reader retirement, a good portion of the early-adopter crowd was reliant on Reader and is highly skeptical of and even upset with Google right now. How do you launch a new service like this without the early adopters?

The audience for Reader may have been small, but it was important.

And I'm super skeptical of a new note service from Google after they already retired Notebook. If the model didn't work before for Google, at a time when Evernote and OneNote had far less traction, why would it work now?

I think the killing of Google Reader was a bit of a wakeup call for a lot of people, including myself. I'm not saying I wouldn't use a google product, but at this point whenever I hear about one I think to myself "what are my escape routes? Am I happy if this thing drops off the face of the planet?"

Here's what pisses me off:

Google can shutdown a popular service because they feel like it... and they have billions of dollars.

But there might be a smaller app developer who has an amazing product... but they really do need every penny to stay in business. And sometimes they're forced to close (or hopefully be acquired... which may or may not be a good thing)

I'm still upset that iGoogle is going away. It's been my browser homescreen for 7 years. It has all my Google services in one screen. Why can't they keep it running?

Evernote's entire business model revolves around their notebook service. Their free accounts don't mine data to display ads; they already know their users are Evernote users, so they advertise products and services that integrate with Evernote. In addition, they have a paid tier, and they make most of their money by convincing people to upgrade to this tier. The day they shut down their notebook service is the day they shut down the company. They're profitable and growing rapidly, so I don't see that happening any time soon.

In addition, since all my Evernote notes are synced locally and backed up with Time Machine, even if they do suddenly vanish one day, I won't lose any data. I'd miss the syncing, but I could easily enough move all my data somewhere else and carry on.

Google's business model is to sell ads. Maybe Google Keep will help with that, and maybe it won't. If it doesn't, don't expect it to stick around. In any case, they've already had a notebook service, and they shut it down. I have no intention on migrating from Evernote under these conditions.

I honestly can't understand why Google would attempt to launch a new service like this right now. As can be seen from the recent articles and blog entries on the Reader retirement, a good portion of the early-adopter crowd was reliant on Reader and is highly skeptical of and even upset with Google right now. How do you launch a new service like this without the early adopters?

The audience for Reader may have been small, but it was important.

And I'm super skeptical of a new note service from Google after they already retired Notebook. If the model didn't work before for Google, at a time when Evernote and OneNote had far less traction, why would it work now?

Keep could be really useful if it syncs with other services (typing a note with a date and time adds it to calendar, search works across email, notes, writing contact info in keep can automatically add it to google contacts) but at the moment, it's an inferior version of Evernote.

It does reinforce what a great product Evernote actually is.

Edit, addendum: I have a whole lot of personal information currently stored within Google products. On one hand, this affords greater protection as it is less likely that any of my data will be hacked as I am using very few cloud products outside of Google. On the other hand, if Google ever does get hacked or lose data, I am totally screwed.

I'm still upset that iGoogle is going away. It's been my browser homescreen for 7 years. It has all my Google services in one screen. Why can't they keep it running?

It's all overhead. It's all something they have to maintain. My guess is that they're worried about being drowned in a quagmire of complexity and legacy that comes from having a bazillion small products that all vaguely interconnect. I'd guess they're also now interested in their "brand", and not "confusing their customers", and lots of other business speak for "making sure the sheep are herded in the direction we want them to go".

If you want to find the silver lining, this is another good reason to not make your life^ rely on free services. Which in turn is for software developers (and I'm to understand we're well represented at Ars) a good thing, because it means you'll hopefully be able to actually *charge money* for apps you build.

^Or business, as many people building apps that sync with Google Reader or that use Twitter in some way are now rather rudely finding out.

Google wants your notes/thoughts, what you search for, what are looking at through out the day, what you take pictures of, what you talk to your friends about. It turns out that "what you read" just wasn't all that lucrative.

I'm still upset that iGoogle is going away. It's been my browser homescreen for 7 years. It has all my Google services in one screen. Why can't they keep it running?

It's all overhead. It's all something they have to maintain. My guess is that they're worried about being drowned in a quagmire of complexity and legacy that comes from having a bazillion small products that all vaguely interconnect. I'd guess they're also now interested in their "brand", and not "confusing their customers", and lots of other business speak for "making sure the sheep are herded in the direction we want them to go".

If you want to find the silver lining, this is another good reason to not make your life^ rely on free services. Which in turn is for software developers (and I'm to understand we're well represented at Ars) a good thing, because it means you'll hopefully be able to actually *charge money* for apps you build.

^Or business, as many people building apps that sync with Google Reader or that use Twitter in some way are now rather rudely finding out.

Good points.

It's just that Google is in the eyeball business... why wouldn't they want me starting at that iGoogle screen dozens of times a day? Throw some ads on it... or let me pay.

I've tried the other iGoogle "clones" and they don't work the same as the real thing.

And it all goes back to the money issue. If Google has billions of dollars and even they don't think a product is worth it to maintain... what hope is there for the smaller developers?

Google Keep is really just a minor addition to Google Docs. Google Docs is not going anywhere any time soon, because that would completely kill their ChromeOS platform and significantly hurt Android. Plus, Drive has a paid element already for heavy users that might actually cost Google.

My question is, will this integrate with Gmail Taks? I have been using that for years, and currently Keep does not seem to import lists from it. It seems redundant to have two tasks applications. That is one service I expect to quickly get replaced with a Keep alternative. Which is great, while terribly useful it was somewhat featured limited.

To everyone betting on Evernote as your savior from Google's capricious ways, you probably should think again about that. Evernote has been around a lot longer than you probably think they have, and their history of feature continuity and long-term support isn't as sterling as everyone seems to think. Evernote was around years before their 2008 Sequoia Capital backed relaunch, and was previously a Windows only competitor to OneNote. When they decided to relaunch as an iOS-friendly web service, they left pretty much all of their previous customers in the lurch. They dumped their old interface, completely changed their client software, and did not really give their old customers any way to transition to the new service.

Even better yet, they made it abundantly clear that they had so many new customers, that they didn't care about the user base they had before their relaunch, because it was an insignificant number of people. Now, that was a very smart business strategy for them, but if you are looking for them to be the company that is going to look after their early adopters, then you are looking in the wrong place.

Seriously: Is there an API or a protocol to access this by other means than by the Android app and the web interface? If this is integrated with Google Drive why can't I see my notes (I just created one) in Google Drive?

I mean, a Note service NEEDS to be cross-platform. It also needs native clients that cache notes because you may need your notes or write one when you're not having net access.

I'm still using Simplenote (which has clients and scripts and whatnot for all kinds of platforms) and Keep seems to be utterly inferior to Simplenote. Or Evernote.

Florence Ion / Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.